Towel dispenser



F. J. SMITH TOWEL DISPENSER Filed April 21, 1960 INVENTOR f. I SMITH 4770RNX United States Patent Ofifice 3,025,829 Patented Mar. 20, 1962 3,025,829 TOWEL DESPENSER Frederick Julian Smith, Silt) Victoria Ava, Westmount, Quebec, Canada Filed Apr. 21, 1960, Ser. No. 23,673 3 Claims. ((31. 118-221) This invention relates to dispensers of the type in which towel size lengths are unrolled from a roll of paper and torn off. It is the main object of the invention to provide means to wet a part of the paper as it is being unrolled. The invention is of particular utility when the towel is used for washing purposes rather than for drying purposes, and one special field of application is in automotive service stations, in which the wet towel may be used to clean Windshields of motor cars. In this case the liquid With which the towel is wetted may be a special windshield cleaner.

The dispenser in accordance with the invention comprises the elements normally found in conventional dispensers such as a casing, a cradle for the roll of paper, a tearing edge and a thumb and finger hole for grasping the paper, and is provided in addition with a receptacle containing a bath of liquid, a pick-up roller in contact with the paper portion which is being unrolled and dipping into the bath, and preferably also a pressure roller adapted to maintain the paper in contact with the pick-up roller. The pick-up roller has preferably a recessed central portion so that a central strip of the paper remains dry, to prevent the risk of tearing the paper when it is grasped and torn off.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dispenser according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the dispenser with the side wall of the casing removed; and

FIG. 3 is a front elevation with the front of the dispenser With the wall of the casing and the pressure roller partly broken away.

Referring to the drawings, the dispenser comprises a casing having side walls a back wall 11 and a bottom wall 12, and open at the top and front, except for a strip 13 having a thumb and finger paper gripping slot 14 and providing a tear-off edge 15. A front and top closure panel 16 closes the casing and is hinged at 17 to the side walls 10; the closed and open positions of the closure panel 16 are shown in FIG. 2, respectively in full and broken lines. The top corners of panel 16 are provided with lugs 18 having stamped out protrusions 19 which engage similar stamped out recesses of the side walls 10, to provide catches which keep the closure panel resiliently in closed position.

A cradle 20 is secured to the inside face of each side wall 10 and is adapted to receive the spindle 21 of a roll of paper 22. A U-shaped spring 23 of either fiat or round wire section is secured to the back Wall 11 and bears against the roll of paper 22 to keep it from spinning.

The receptacle generally shaped as a trough 24 rests and is secured on the bottom wall 12 of the casing, and has its front portion extending to within a short distance from the front wall strip 13 to form a towel dispensing slot 42 for the passage of the paper. The front portion of the trough 24 is formed as a slide 25 with a small wiper roll 26 at the bottom of the slide. Below the roller 26 the trough unit is recessed to allow grasping of the paper.

The walls 27 of the trough which are adjacent the side walls 10 are provided with upwardly projecting cradles 28. A pick-up roller 29 is rotatably mounted in the cradles 28 and is secured therein by means of locking screws 35 The pick-up roller 29 has its outer thirds lined with sponge sleeves 31, so that the central third of the pick-up roller is bare and recessed. The sponge sleeves 31 on the pick-up roller 29 clips into a bath 32 of water or cleaning fluid contained in the trough 24. Soft rubber wipers 33 are secured to the front and back walls of the trough and extend in resilient engagement with the sleeves 31 to remove excess fluid picked up by the sleeves and to minimize evaporation from the surface of the bath.

A pair of arms 34 are pivoted at 35 on opposite side walls 10 and have mounted between them at their other ends a pressure roller 36 which is provided with a rubber liner 37. The pressure roller 36 is pivoted on the arms 34 by its spindle 38. Springs 39 secured between the side walls 10 and the arms 34 urge the pressure roller 36 against the pick-up roller 29, to keep the paper in contact with the pick up roller.

A filler nozzle 4% provided with a cap 41 extends from the trough 23 through a hole of one of the side walls 10 of the casing, to the outside of the casing. A sediment separating screen 42 is mounted in the bottom of the trough 24 to prevent stirring up sediment in the liquid.

The dispenser is operated exactly as conventional dispensers, and as the paper is unrolled from the roll 22 it rotates the pick-up roller 29 and is wetted by the liquid collected on the sponge sleeves 31. The central third of the paper remains dry, since at this point the pick-up roller is bare and recessed, so as to provide a grasping area which can be handled without risk of tearing. The dry central area also increases the tensional resistance of the paper, which might otherwise tear at the point between the pressure roller and the pick-up roller.

The invention is limited only to the scope of the appended claims, and not to the specific features of the embodiment described above.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A paper roll towel dispensing cabinet, the said cabinet having a dispensing slot and a paper gripping slot adjacent said dispensing slot and located midway of the length thereof, a roll of paper towel mounted in the upper portion of the dispensing cabinet and a receptacle containing a bath of liquid located in the lower portion of the cabinet, a pick up roller having sleeves of liquid absorbing material in its outer portions and a reduced central portion, a pair of arms pivoted in said cabinet, a pressure roller mounted between said arms, spring means con nected to said arms urging said pressure roller into contact with said sleeves, the towel from said roll of paper towel adapted to pass between said sleeves and said pressure roller to be wetted by said sleeves and be directed through said dispensing slot, the dry portion of said towel being aligned with the paper gripping slot in the cabinet.

2. A paper roll towel dispenser as set forth in claim 1, in which a wiper roll is located within the cabinet between said pick-up roller and the dispensing slot.

3. A paper roll towel dispenser as set forth in claim 1, in which the said liquid receptacle contains a sediment separating screen.

Bergstein Sept. 12, 1933 Lowery Apr. 27, 1948 

